Why is it that so many people in the developed world have a dogmatic faith in the ability of human societies to overcome any and all problems, and to keep growing bigger, better, faster and stronger over time? Perhaps such beliefs are inherent to the human condition – i.e. some evolved mentality that cannot be changed. I doubt it, though. We have seen examples of smaller-scale communities and societies throughout history and even today that are much more content with maintaining a stable balance with each other and with nature.

Rather, I think we find a large part of the explanation for these delusional beliefs in our developed cultures. We are quite literally brainwashed to believe that humanity has unlimited material potential, and this programming has only grown more frequent and more potent in recent years. Behind almost every new popular entertainment fad, there is the repetitive message that humans have the potential to become super-humans, post-humans or perhaps even Gods. Take a look at some of the examples below:

SUPERHEROES

This one speaks for itself. Superheroes in comic books and on television are by no means a recent development, but they have overwhelmed the movie theaters over the last decade. Many these super men and women have derived “supernatural” abilities from the “unstoppable” progression of scientific research. In the case of the X-Men, it has been through genetic mutations and intentional genetic engineering that their powers were created – a field of scientific research that is highly developed right now. Characters such as Batman and Iron Man, instead, have relied on highly advanced technology to accomplish their super missions.

VAMPIRES & WEREWOLVES

Here we have a rapidly growing phenomenon in popular culture that focuses on the ability of humans to become immortal and to gain fantastic strength. Traditionally, vampires were thought of as scary and harmful creatures that should be avoided. Now, in stark contrast, they have been romanticized in books, television and movies to become the role models of almost every child born after 1990. The vampires are sexy, charismatic, cool, intelligent, powerful and even noble and caring.

They are misunderstood humans who have been persecuted throughout the ages by “normal” society, but in reality they have played a large role in defining the nature of humanity and its eventual future. We find a similar dynamic in mythical stories about werewolves, who are commonly associated with super strength, speed and the ability to shape-shift. Many of the vampire-based shows and movies also incorporate werewolves and other mythical creatures into their story lines.

People of all ages have been seduced by these sinister narratives in a spectacularly frightening manner. We even have companies marketing drinks like “Tru Blood” for people who want to gain the super-human traits of vampires, or at least play out the fantasy in their heads. They come complete with blood types and descriptions of what those blood types will do for the person consuming the “blood”. Apparently, Type O has an “arrogant independence” and it is “strong to the point of ruthlessness” – a perfect blend of bloody beverage for the “impulsive kingpin”. I don’t know about you, but to me that sounds like a great description of the people who are running our world into the ground right now – quite literally feeding themselves off the blood of millions.

ROBOTS & ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE

Once again, a category that speaks for itself. The iconic representation of robotic evolution in pop culture is from the Terminator series, in which self-aware machines take over the Earth and proceed to battle pockets of human resistance. They eventually decide to travel into the past and terminate the leader of the resistance before he is ever born. Here we have the concepts of highly advanced technology/weapons, artificial intelligence, time travel and robot-human hybrids all wrapped together in one tight narrative.

There are obviously significant amounts of scientific research devoted to making some of these concepts into reality, and in some ways they have already succeeded at limited scales. In fact, the growing field of “transhumanism” is entirely devoted to “transforming the human condition” in very similar ways. While researchers in this field claim to also focus on the “ethical” issues involved, we all know that humanity has a tendency to subsume ethics when it gets in the way of technological advancement.

Wikipedia: Transhumanism, abbreviated as H+ or h+, is an international intellectual and cultural movement that affirms the possibility and desirability of fundamentally transforming the human condition by developing and making widely available technologies to eliminate aging and to greatly enhance human intellectual, physical, and psychological capacities.[1] Transhumanist thinkers study the potential benefits and dangers of emerging technologies that could overcome fundamental human limitations, as well as study the ethical matters involved in developing and using such technologies. They predict that human beings may eventually be able to transform themselves into beings with such greatly expanded abilities as to merit the label “posthuman”.[1]

ALIENS

The aliens infiltrated pop culture soon after Roswell in the 1950s, but they really bombarded television and movies in the 1980s, and have been growing more popular ever since. They are present in everything from animated movies for small children to extremely violent movies for adults, and, what’s more, the underlying themes are not very different for either target audience. Here we have the idea that highly advanced biological creatures that evolved in other parts of the Universe are visiting humanity to extract resources or impart knowledge or some combination of those things.

Whatever the motives of these aliens, we are told that they have supernatural powers and technologies that any human would be a fool not to covet. In fact, movies like Prometheus have incorporated the very popular idea of directed panspermia – an idea that is actually taken seriously by a few academics out there – which suggests that advanced aliens are the original creators of humanity and have been guiding our evolution ever since. The undeniable message is that humans have the genetic blueprint to evolve into creatures just like these aliens, i.e. the equivalent of Gods with unfathomable technological prowess and the ultimate power over the creation and destruction of life.

Is it really any wonder, then, that our societal leaders constantly feed us propaganda about how we will grow our way out of economic depression, how we will innovate our way out of energy and environmental disasters and how we will consciously evolve our way out of violent conflicts and wars. There are many serious transhumanists out there who believe we will reach some sort of “technological singularity” and effectively become the immortal rulers of Earth. All of this would be laughable if it wasn’t for the fact that so much time, resources and propaganda are actually devoted to making these things a reality, as well as convincing everyone that it can and will be done

The avenues of popular culture are both tools used to influence the collective mentality, and a reflection of the collective mentality that is already ingrained in global society. It sells because we want to believe it, and we want to believe it because it sells. Make no mistake, the entertainment industry is all about politics, programming and outright deception these days. What we see happening in elite policy circles is not much different from what we see happening on our television sets and in our movie theatres. They want us to believe humanity is becoming omnipotent by following their lead, but instead our cultures are quickly becoming impotent.

Posthuman Godhead, by Acceler8or Why is it that so many people in the developed world have a dogmatic faith in the ability of human societies to overc[See the full post at: Culturally Programmed Myths of Omnipotence ]

Of course technology also tends to be self limiting as shown in the film Blade runner, where Harrison Ford’s Rick Deckard tracks down ‘replicants’ who are built to be ‘more human than human’. And more human than human they are: after their short (limited) lifespan four of the ‘androids’ go on a hunt for their maker to get more ‘life’. When Roy (Rutger Hauer), one of the renegade replicants catches up with his creator, Tyrell, who refuses to extend their lives, he kills him. This return of the prodigal son and the search for long life/immortality is a classic theme throughout human history. The other twist in the film is Deckard’s true identity: is he or isn’t he an android? Thereby showing the true potential of technology to blur the boundaries between human and machine, between man and tool (the Greeks btw referred to their slaves as ‘talking tools’).

The term technology itself is a misnomer; it actually means the study of techne – technique; that is the ways and means of doing things. What we really mean when we say technology is the technique of doing a certain process. Jaques Ellul, in his book ‘Technological Bluff’ talks about how humans are fascinated with technology, and how the means gets confused with the ends. He also pointed out in other works the dangers of propaganda through information overload, something so prevalent in the modern industrial media machine. (see: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jacques_Ellul). Zigmunt Bauman’s “Modernity and the Holocaust” paints a dire warning of how technology can isolate individuals from inhumane acts of violence otherwise too obscene to commit. These two historical examples prove that the techno-narcistic impulse is nothing new.

As for the hubris that hides failure of the best laid plans of (GM) mice and men, check out Mae Wan Ho and the Institute for Science In Society (http://www.i-sis.org.uk/index.php ) and peruse a few articles on Genetic Modification – scarily funny if it wasn’t so funnily scary…

Like Prometheus of old and Disney’s adaptation of Goethe’s Sorcerer’s Apprentice of more recent times the characters use ‘technology’ to further progress of civilisation and save time, but while Prometheus was a champion of humanity and its striving to better itself, today we are more like Mickey Mouse whose meddling in things he thinks he knows results in them getting out of hand and out of his control.

While we may wish/fear for the return of ‘Yen Sid’ the Sorcerer (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Sorcerer%27s_Apprentice) to save us, a more likely outcome is likely to be similar to Tyrell’s, and, lest we forget, that ‘parable of scientific progress’, Mary Shelly’s Frankenstein (originally subtitled The Modern Prometheus).

J. Robert Oppenheimer, one of the fathers of the atomic bomb declared “I am become death, the destroyer of worlds” when it finally dawned on him what he had unleashed. A later physicist David Bohm realised that the problems of humanity lay in its thought systems and proposed just that in his book “Though as a System”, along with his ‘Dialogue’ technique for addressing difficult issues. But as for technology saving the day? Yeah right!; even the so called (by their conquerors) ‘primitive’ aboriginals of Turtle Island saw that one coming; check out the ‘Hopi’ Prophecy (http://www.welcomehome.org/rainbow/prophecy/hopi1.html & http://www.crawford2000.co.uk/famous-hopi-indian-prophecies.htm) hair raisingly weird n’est pas? And weirdly prophetic…

“”This is the First Sign: We were told of the coming of the white-skinned men, like Pahana, but not living like Pahana — men who took the land that was not theirs and who struck their enemies with thunder. (Guns)

“This is the Second Sign: Our lands will see the coming of spinning wheels filled with voices. (Covered wagons)

“This is the Third Sign: A strange beast like a buffalo but with great long horns, will overrun the land in large numbers. (Longhorn cattle)

“This is the Fourth Sign: The land will be crossed by snakes of iron. (Railroad tracks)

“This is the Fifth Sign: The land shall be criss-crossed by a giant spider’s web. (Power and telephone lines)

“This is the Sixth Sign: The land shall be criss-crossed with rivers of stone that make pictures in the sun. (Concrete roads and their mirage-producing effects.)

“This is the Seventh Sign: You will hear of the sea turning black, and many living things dying because of it. (Oil spills)

“This is the Eighth Sign: You will see many youth, who wear their hair long like our people, come and join the tribal nations, to learn our ways and wisdom. (Hippies)

“And this is the Ninth and Last Sign: You will hear of a dwelling-place in the heavens, above the earth, that shall fall with a great crash. It will appear as a blue star. Very soon after this, the ceremonies of the Hopi people will cease.

“These are the Signs that great destruction is here: The world shall rock to and fro. The white man will battle people in other lands — those who possessed the first light of wisdom. There will be many columns of smoke and fire such as the white man has made in the deserts not far from here. Those who stay and live in the places of the Hopi shall be safe. Then there will be much to rebuild. And soon, very soon afterward, Pahana will return. He shall bring with him the dawn of the Fifth World. He shall plant the seeds of his wisdom in our hearts. Even now the seeds are being planted. These shall smooth the way to the Emergence into the Fifth World.””

Nice article. I’ve often wondered if hollywood is simply a reflection of existing thinking or is a more causal force.

Certainly superheroes are an interesting study to me. Perhaps the storyline echoes the frustration that most people feel powerless to change the world around them.

Or maybe the takeaway is simpler and more insidious: “you ARE powerless to change anything because you don’t have super powers.”

And the vampire series, talking about the immortal overlords living secretly among us: “some of us are nice, some are not, but don’t even think of rebelling or else you’ll end up as just another tasty snack.”

I think there may be a pony in there somewhere.

It does appear that the secrets are slowly emerging, in many areas. Perhaps we’ll see something interesting here too someday soon.

Nice article. I’m convinced that most people simply believe what makes them feel comfortable.

Armed with this knowledge and near unlimited debt money receipts to game the “free market” veneer, the propagandists simply have their way with much of the populace.

“The conscious and intelligent manipulation of the organized habits and opinions of the masses is an important element in democratic society. Those who manipulate this unseen mechanism of society constitute an invisible government which is the true ruling power of our country. We are governed, our minds are molded, our tastes formed, our ideas suggested, largely by men we have never heard of. This is a logical result of the way in which our democratic society is organized. Vast numbers of human beings must cooperate in this manner if they are to live together as a smoothly functioning society.”
~Edward Bernays (Sigmund Freud’s nephew)

The key is *over time*. It bio-accumulates. By the time your mind stops operating as you age, you have no idea what impact the toxins had on impaired brain function. Call it slow kill if you will. Brain impaired elderly people won’t be able to resist Debt Money Tyranny nearly as much during the bankruptcy and nation state liquidation phase of this operation. Not to mention the “genius” of turning a multi billion dollar hazardous waste storage problem into a multi billion dollar profit making enterprise.

Again, this is why the Trivium methodology is so important.

Many people are running around believing they know something simply because other people believe it. Even worse, they mock people out of their complete ignorance of the relevant issues.

Cris Sheridan post=4646 wrote: As anyone seen the three part documentary along these lines called Technocalypse. It is a MUST! Absolutely brilliant and frightening.

It is a very interesting and informative documentary. While I don’t think many of these transhuman technological efforts will ultimately be scaled up for significant portions of society, it is the entire mentality surrounding it that is the most frightening for me. At a time when our economic, social and political realities are rapidly transforming, the last thing we need to do is completely uproot all of our traditional conceptions of who we truly are. Yes, scientific research and advances in these fields have given us more insights into how nature functions, including how we function, but it should not be used as the foundation for a new global metaphysics and religion. That is just a recipe for disappointment and disaster.

Humans have a bit warped view on reality, which probably is a result of evolution. A human that has a positive outlook to succeed in a project will probably to better in surviving than one that doesn’t even try, and do better than one that has a completely realistic view on a project. Because once in a while a project doomed to fail will actually succeed to great benefit for that human and the offspring.

Some say that depressed people has the most realistic view, at least on them selves.

Then there is that death-thing. I we were totally realistic we could as well give up immediately since we are all going to die anyway. So some evolutionary mind warping is probably needed just to stay alive.